Posts Tagged ‘savings’

You probably have heard the line from Gertrude Stein, “A rose is a rose is a rose” which we take to mean “things are what they are.” For example, when traveling from destination A to destination B, A will remain A and B will remain B. How we travel from A to B may change, but we are still trying to get from A to B.

What Does This Have to Do With Business?

In business it is important to know what is fixed, what changes, and what seldom changes. An unchanging aspect for business would be something like Read the rest of this entry »

Unsustainable – It’s a word with such a negative connotation. It also is a word heard often in regards to the debt of the United States and the on-going out-of-control spending. But what does that have to do with business? Before we look at that let’s first Read the rest of this entry »

While reading an article about the funding levels of various cities around the county to finance future retirement and medical benefits, it was shocking to see how many had very little set aside. Some even had nothing funded for health care. This is a potential disaster that threatens the financial stability of these cities. In fact, if a city fails financially the repercussions will impact other areas of society as well.

What Does The Have to Do with Me?

These cities were so caught up in appeasing the present needs and wants of people that they failed to look to the future. Notice the word wants in the previous sentence. This is highly likely a lot of what caused this problem of not being able to Read the rest of this entry »

An acquisition, merger, split-off, split-up – all are major business events. It has always amazed me how top management will sometimes try to reassure employees when they are confronting this kind of upheaval.

Let’s Think About This

Let’s just consider making an acquisition. I like this one because I’ve been there numerous times and seen this play out several ways. Regardless of what the final results were, one thing was amazingly consistent. In each case Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read and article by Jessica Stillman in Inc. magazine entitled, Why Working More Than 40 Hours a Week is Useless. A link to the article was posted to Linked In. Let me just say up front that I agree with her general consensus on the 40 workweek which is based on multiple studies from the 1930s forward. I would like to add a few additional things to consider. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever had a sense of dread when someone was going to be on vacation and you were going to have to figure out how to cover for them?

It’s Not About You?

Okay, sorry if that seems rude, but, really, it’s not about you. It’s actually about everyone in your company. We all need a break from time-to-time. There are multiple reasons for this, the most obvious of which is “We need time to rest and recharge our batteries. Yes, that includes Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine you have a critical deal in the works and you’re relying on a certain employee to make a major contribution. When you try to contact this individual you learn they are out sick, or out of town on a family emergency, or even worse, they have given their notice and have already left the company. It just so happens that this particular employee is the only one with some specific knowledge needed to complete the deal. Nobody else has been cross-trained to perform their role.

Having just finished my personal tax return, I am reminded why Income Tax Preparation and Planning are services I have never had an interest in providing. There are two reasons why:

My belief is that this service is specialized and should be handled by someone who makes it their specialty

I also believe the U. S. Tax Code is absurdly bloated and complicated, causes countless wasted hours to comply with, and in the end is non-productive

Increasing Complexity

Like the U.S. Tax Code, over the years companies have a tendency to add layers of bureaucracy and increasingly complex procedures. If you own a company or have worked somewhere for an extended period, stop for a moment and look back to what the company was like when you first started. Chances are things were a lot simpler and perhaps more efficient. Read the rest of this entry »

Businesses are always looking for ways to save money and should be. Unfortunately they often choose a method that may come back to haunt them.

So You Want to Give Employees a Break?

Years ago I was joined a company that paid some of its employees a draw and commissions on top of that. For this they were treated as employees and the applicable taxes deducted and remitted along with the company’s portion of taxes. However, this company also Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably heard someone say about a task they needed to do, “I’d rather have a root canal.” Unfortunately, for many companies that is how the payroll process is viewed. It doesn’t have to be that way.

A Critical Question

Why are you in business? Unless you are a payroll company, it is doubtful you said, “We’re in business to process payroll.” No, in fact payroll is probably viewed as Read the rest of this entry »